Chapter XII
"Are you serious? Please tell me you ain't lying!"
"No more lies right now, Tara. It's the honest truth," said Jaeda. She was explaining the other night to her friends in the cafeteria. Everything about how she could hear Sparx's thoughts and when she had brought him up into her room to listen to music.
"So wait, when he left, the music just stopped?" said Carter.
"Yeah!" Jaeda replied. "Just stopped."
"Do you think Sparx did it?"
"What are you talking about, boy?" Tara butted in between.
"She said the song started over again because it was on repeat. But when Sparx left, the song stopped, didn't play again." He took a sip of his soda.
"He's got a point, Tara. I mean, Sparx is a robot from another planet. He's most likely to do things like that," said Jaeda. Sparx must've been excited to hear the song, but depressed if he'd stopped it.
"You must've really upset the guy," said Tara, as if she had just read Jaeda's thoughts.
"Do you think he might forgive me?"
"Well, if I was Sparx, I would. I mean, you're only human. And that was kind of hard question to answer in front of him, I'm sure," said the "all knowing" Carter.
"Thanks, Carter. You're the best," Jaeda said smiling. Carter smiled back.
"Just doing what I can."
Tara looked around at everyone else who was eating.
"What?" Jaeda asked.
"Have you noticed that nobody's bombarding you with questions today? Man, popular one day, nerd the next."
"I guess you guys didn't hear about Rebecca," said Carter.
"The snob in Spanish?" said Jaeda.
"Yep. She broke up with the jock guy, Darren, for some bass player named Luke."
"And that's more important than the alien at Jaeda's?!" Tara screamed. Jaeda patted her head.
"Calm down. I told you I didn't want fame, anyway."
"Gives you good publicity, though," Tara murmured.
When she got home, Jaeda went straight to the basement to apologize to Sparx. But he wasn't there. Her father then came down explaining that he was at the Lab, his colleagues were working on him so George could have a break. Jaeda sighed, disappointed, and slowly walked up to her room. She plopped herself down onto the bed and put her head inside her pillow. Occasionally she would lift her head up to breathe. The whole time she had acted out in her head what she would say to Sparx and how he might react to it. She wasn't sure if any of the parts were how he would act, but it was accurate enough for Jaeda.
When she finally got hungry, she walked down to the kitchen. The food was already set on the table and Mike was already stuffing down his Salisbury steak.
"Slow down, boy!" his dad said. "I don't want the oldest dying on me because he choked." Jaeda didn't laugh. She was too upset about making Sparx leave. He looked like it really hurt his feelings.
"Dad, when is Sparx coming back?" she asked, not thinking about it before she had said it.
"Well, he should be coming back around mid-night. My partner called me and said a few more tests had to be done and an artist had come in to sketch him, to make some money. Like the regular starving artist. Why do want to know?"
"Maybe she has a crush on the robot," Mike laughed. His mother shoved his arm.
"Don't be rude," she said.
"Well, he's my present, so I ought to know where he is," Jaeda lied. She knew it wrong, but the lie wanted to come out of her for some unknown reason. It was a good thing her parents had bought it, though.
"Alright, well, are you hungry? You're mom's got potatoes, corn, steak…"
"No, I'm going to go to my room. I'll come down when my appetite catches up with me," said Jaeda and she ran back up to her room. Well, Sparx wasn't due back until the middle of the night. What would she do then?
"I'll stay up."
Every ten or twenty minutes, Jaeda would look out her window to see if a Lab truck came yet to drop off Sparx. She was aggravated that the truck was forty minutes late for their delivery. She saw her dad go help his partners drag the cylinder container that Sparx was brought in, and hauled it down into the basement. Jaeda waited for the men to leave and thirty more minutes to be sure that her dad was sleeping. She snuck out the way she had did the other night and when she made it down into the basement, Sparx didn't open his eyes just yet. She touched her fingers on the glass and then started to tap on it. Sparx twitched, but still didn't open his eyes.
"Sparx, you okay?" she whispered.
Don't call me that.
"What?" Jaeda was confused for a second. "But, isn't Sparx your name?"
No.
"Oh…Then what is?"
Brainwave.
"Hmm…Brainwave," she repeated. "Where'd you get that name?"
It's the one that master Perceptor gave me.
"Perceptor? Who's that?" That answered the "Percept" question.
Brainwave flinched. His face became sad and he looked away from Jaeda. And the girl didn't know if she had heard correctly, but it seemed like he was crying…
I don't feel like talking about it right now…
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know."
It's okay. I'll tell you when I'm more comfortable…
"Okay, then, Brainwave, what do you want to do tonight?" The robot paused and looked up in a different direction. Jaeda heard a sound from him that sounded like was thinking. "Don't blow up your processor on me from thinking."
Brainwave chuckled. Don't worry about me.
"I have every right to be worried. My dad thinks of you mostly as his research project than he does as a living being. I have no clue what he's doing to you, so I'm just concerned."
Brainwave switched his focus over to her, his golden optics shined brightly.
"You know, my brother keeps making jokes that I actually like you like you."
Uh… I don't understand.
"It's relative to the love question, so I don't think I should've brought it up anyway," she said sheepishly. Brainwave started to hum again, breaking Jaeda's concentration on the subject.
How about we fly?
"Fly? What the heck are you talking about?" Since when could Brainwave fly?
Yeah, fly. See the points on my feet? I touch all of them and it gives them an energy boost to go straight up into the air. But, I haven't tried it yet…
"So you expect me to be a part of a test? No way!" The last thing she wanted was dying before she went into college and had a real life. Not to mention she was hoping to become an author, romantic novel to be exact. But she hadn't tried it yet, due to the fact that she never experienced love. So her novels probably wouldn't get that good.
Come on, please? I want to do this!
"No way in heck am I going do this! You could probably withstand the crash, not saying that we might, but I could die! My father might accuse you of murder, you know," she explained in the best way she could. Brainwave didn't buy it.
How about I do a small test, and if it works out fine, you and me will go somewhere for a bit. You name it.
"What are you talking about?"
A view. You know, to see the stars. I bet you if I tried I could point out my home planet.
Jaeda couldn't argue with that. She figured that Brainwave's plan was simple and safe enough, so she decided to give it a go. She unlocked him from his container and helped him take off the cords connecting him to Dr. Scotts' server on his computer. They both walked outside and went far enough away so that no one could hear them.
"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Jaeda sounded worried again.
I'll be fine, I promise. Nothing will happen. He tapped all three points on both of his feet and hoped for the best. Jaeda stood at least three meters away, crossing her fingers and praying to her God and, whoever Brainwave's worshiped lord was, that he was going to live.
Here goes! He bended his knee joints to get a good lift off and jumped as the rockets on his feet busted to life and hauled him straight up into the night sky. Jaeda covered her face to not get any debris in her eyes. She looked up to find Brainwave doing all sorts of spins and loops and other tricks in the sky. She even heard him hooting with joy.
"Careful up there! You only live once! I think…" Brainwave did a few more tricks and landed down behind Jaeda, out of breath.
Woo! You've GOT to try that!
"Well, a promise is a promise." Jaeda lifted her arms up horizontally. "Don't crash into anything and go slow. I don't want to get sick." Brainwave smiled and walked up to her. He grabbed her; his arms underneath hers and wrapped around her back. Jaeda put her arms around Brainwave's back too, just for better security, and leaned her face towards Brainwave's chest, almost looking like a hug.
"Please don't kill me," she begged. Brainwave did his usual electronic giggle and kissed her forehead.
It's only me. And you know I won't do anything to hurt you.
"Then don't," she responded in a sarcastic tone. Brainwave slowly levitated, to get Jaeda comfortable. He sped up a bit to get into the sky, high enough to make the girl dizzy, but not enough to make her sick.
So where are we going?
"Well, I was thinking we'd probably go to the smallest mountain over to the west," she said. "There's a spot there that has a good view of the city." She then thought about explaining to Brainwave what a mountain was, but he seemed to know already.
That one there? He pointed to the right towards what was more a hill than it was a mountain.
"Yeah. How'd you know?"
While I was hooked up to the computers, it was like exchanged information. Dr. Scotts got information on me while I logged onto the Internet and got my own data from there!
"That's amazing!"
Ha! You should expect nothing less from the assistant of Perceptor!
Before Jaeda could ask any more questions, Brainwave took off at a speed that scared Jaeda half do death; she screamed as loud as her lungs could manage.
Aww, come on, you big baby! (Brainwave was starting to sound more human, thanks to his data exchange) You go more faster in a car than you can up here!
"A race car! And that's not what my stomach's saying!" she screamed to him.
They made it to the mountain in less than seven minutes. Brainwave hovered down to the smooth rock on top and set Jaeda back down on her feet.
Was that fun?
"Yeah! Except for the part where my mouth wrapped around my ears and my eyelids went over my head and everything!" she said sarcastically. Brainwave let out a loud electronic laugh.
You're always so funny! Just be glad I kept my promise of not hurting you.
"Yet," Jaeda emphasized. "You didn't hurt me yet." She released herself from Brainwave's grip and redid her ponytail thanks to the wind slashing across her face. "And I had just took a shower."
Brainwave smiled again and looked out onto the bright lights of Boston thirty miles away.
Amazing…he said softly. Jaeda turned around to focus her attention back to Brainwave. His body reflected the lights that almost made him look like some sort of robotic god.
Jaeda shook her head. Why would she be thinking this? She couldn't actually fall in love with a robot.
Could she?
"It's great, isn't it?" she said as she walked up next to him. Brainwave didn't look at her but responded.
Yeah. I never see anything like this on Cybertron. Everything's in light there. I like seeing the separation between the dark and the lights. It's kind of mesmerizing. Whoa! Brainwave was becoming a half-poet!
"Focuses on one area; is that what you like?" she asked just to continue the conversation. Brainwave nodded. "Tell me, what's Cybertron like?"
I'm not sure if I should answer. For one, I wasn't online enough to find out. And two, Prime might get mad at me if I told an alien about Cybertron. He stopped to think about what he just said. I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that!
"I get it. But remember, until you get back, you're the alien on this planet," she said. "If I went to Cybertron with you, then you can call me an alien."
You know, you never answered my question the other night.
Jaeda shivered. She knew he was referring to the 'what is love' question. "I'm still not sure if I want to explain it."
Well, I just wanted to hear from you. I went to a couple of online dictionaries and a lot of them said different things. What's your opinion?
"Um." There was no way out. Brainwave was going to find out sooner or later; she just wish it wasn't too soon! "I think I would describe it as a feeling, an emotion. Sometimes it comes in different ways.
"You could get nausea. I know, it doesn't sound great, but I've never heard of someone throwing up at it. It's usually a weird feeling in your stomach; or tank in your case.
"You feel like you two are the only ones there in the area. They say that's true love, but I don't believe it. And it's usually called love at first sight."
Stop there. Jaeda turned her head to Brainwave. His face seemed a little blank with the exception of his wide eyes.
"Are you okay? Did I say something I shouldn't have?"
No. He stayed quiet for a few minutes and talked again. Remember when I first saw you?
"How could I forget?"
Well, the two you described was what happened to me. I became half-blind even. I felt that I should always be close to you, no matter what.
"So that's why you got frustrated with the manager?"
Yeah, I guess. I know this all sounds a little silly; a robot falling in love with a human, but it's all true. He stopped. He wasn't sure what to say next. Jaeda could see him struggling for words. So she took a step closer to him and put her hand on Brainwave's lower jaw and turned his head to look at him.
"I think that's really sweet," she said. "I've never had someone love me before…"
So…you don't mind? Jaeda smiled and hugged Brainwave.
"Not at all," she whispered. Brainwave smiled as well and held her tighter. Both of them weren't sure how long they had stood there, but they didn't really care. They wanted it to last…
xXx
Author's Note: Okay, maybe the love part was a bit retarded. I'm only 13 and never had a guy love me before, but I would want him to say something close to what Brainwave said to Jaeda. (Hint that Jaeda is not me)
